The drama of China's struggle to modernize unfolds against the backdrop of a proud and enduring history in the new and completely revised edition of this classic text. Spanning the years of the Opium War to twenty-first century China, the book covers the great episodes that highlight that journey: the breakdown of Imperial China in the face of relentless Western and Japanese encroachments; the rise of the new Chinese republic; the decades-long struggles between the ideologies and armies of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong; China's bitter and costly war with Japan; the years of the People's Republic punctuated by the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and Tiananmen; up to the rise of the Fourth Generation leadership and the tenure of Jiang Zemin--with special emphasis on China's role in the Gulf wars, North Korea, and the war on terrorism. As China continues to develop as a political and economic superpower, this book will help students understand how the nation reached new heights from the depths in which it found itself during the nineteenth century.